We were constantly puzzling over some innovation on one plane then completing it on the other plane in ¼ of the time. All the while Michael and his crew were keeping a close eye on our progress and offering insightful assistance. The only times that where we were left on our own where when we puzzled over our electronic equipment on our instrument panels: serial port replicators, USB hubs, tablet computer interfaces, etc....

With all the help and average 12 hours day, things moved right along. The first set of wings was ready to go to the painter within a couple of days and was back by the end of the first week. Ed had found a local body shop which had the equipment to paint the planes and Eric gave us the use of his truck and trailer to move the wings one by one to the body shop. Stephen’s wings were next and by the time Alan and I had to leave back for Washington State, both sets of wings had been painted and Stephen’s fuselage and cowling was ready for his paint. By then, it was mostly dependent of the body shop’s schedule and not so much on our degree of completion of the planes.

We made excellent progress during these 2 weeks, wings were finished, engines were installed, fuselage, empennage, rudders, elevators, cowling all were pretty much complete. Various antennas and sensors had been installed and connected, etc… Having never done this kind of thing before, we really didn’t know what to expect, or how to judge our progress, but we have come to understand that our accomplishments were quite unusual. And during the whole process, we never experienced obstacles due to a lack of tools, materials, or expert knowledge.

Even though we made good progress, the 10 day build did not produce flight worthy aircraft. Completion of our projects took several long weekend efforts and a few more hours from our builder assistant Eric. The planes were complete enough to nicely showcase the “build of an airplane process” at Quality Sport Planes Open House in early May with Stephen’s plane as the completed one and ours, mostly complete without the wings attached.

During a subsequent weekend in mid May, we got to the point of first firing of the engine. This was an exiting moment for all which I had to miss as I was in Oakland airport on my way home to Washington and Monday morning work. This led to much “taxiing fun” along the Cloverdale runway with a close eye on the engine temperature for Alan and Stephen that evening and the following day.

Having had little opportunity to develop mechanical/electrical skills, my spot ended being:

The follow-up long weekends

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“Inventory Control and Acquisition”, i.e., on the phone with Aircraft Spruce or running down to the local hardwre store 3 to 4 times a day
Keeping track of the ever changing location of various tools. I seem to have a great photographic memory of where things were. I may not have known the name of a tool but if you described its color, shape, and basic use I usually could locate it quickly.
Keeping the wood burning stove going (there were a few cold mornings even in California)
Making lunch and dinner for Alan, Stephen, and me.
And yes, I pulled the occasional rivet….